With a conventional typewriter, a typist can plan or layout the distribution of printing on a sheet of paper fairly easily because the place where the printing hammer strikes upon typing can be observed directly. However, this is not the case with most word processors. With most word processors, the planning and layout work and initial composition work are all done on a cathode ray tube screen, and only after the layout and composition work is done, is work product printed on a separate printer which is sometimes at a location remote from the balance of the work processor. For certain kinds of work, difficulties have been encountered in easily laying out the work on the cathode ray tube screen so that it will print on paper in the manner desired. These difficulties become particularly acute when the word processor is being used to fill in blanks on a printed form, or to address envelopes, or to place material on small file cards. Accordingly, there is a need for appliances to aid typists in doing their layout work on a cathode ray screen of a word processor in a manner so that the product coming out of the printer has the desired layout.